zzip
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Posts posted by zzip
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2 minutes ago, Electric-Dreams said:
Since the power is supplied via USB, people most likely have to use an OTG cable (just like for the R77) for the firmware update.
Ben confirmed that the included cable is sufficient for doing the firmware updates:
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18 hours ago, JPF997 said:
It's funny looking back now at when this product was first announced, so many people especially around here were claiming that there was no market for this (bla bla it isn't fpga so the hardcore aren't gonna buy it bla bla it only has 10 built-in games so casuals won't like it either etc ) wonder what the cope is going to be now that it's obvious for anyone to see that this console is going to be a great success for Atari
There was a lot more negativity around the VCS when it was announced, but now there's an active community of VCS fans here with only occasional grumblings.
A lot of the negativity isn't really about the systems themselves, it comes from people either angry about something another Atari iteration has done in the past or something Atari isn't doing now, or mad about "scam" consoles that never saw the light of day "Coleco Chameleon", "Amico" and claim everything is a scam.
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On 9/27/2023 at 9:50 PM, leech said:
Ha, now that I think about it... seems to me the Video Game crash coincided with me getting into D&D... which of course led to me being a huge fan of Ultima on the 800xl... I was basically a computer gamer since then.
Yeah it seemed like the video game frenzy peaked in the summer of 1983, and after that it seemed most people either made the jump to computers or moved onto other non-gaming interests. Soon after that my friends took up D&D, and then AD&D. I liked the idea and aesthetic of D&D but found all the paperwork and dice rolling tedious, so the idea of the computer managing the stats and rolls for me while allowing me to focus on the exploring and adventure part was ideal, I started buying every RPG computer game in sight
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8 hours ago, roots.genoa said:
The difficulty here is each Polymega module features one cart slot and 2 to 4 controller ports. So "adding" the Atari 400/800, the Lynx, and the Jaguar basically means designing two to three extra modules (in the case of the Lynx that doesn't require controllers, you can add its cart slot to another module). Given that each module is sold for $75, that's quite a lot.
As usual, it's obvious a 2600/7800 module will be easier to sell than an Atari 400/800 one. So in any case, it's probably better to sell only one first, then decide if you create other ones if the first is successful. The Polymega is extremely niche to begin with; we're not talking about a system like the 2600+, which is already not that mainstream. So, no, it shouldn't "immediately be expanded", I'm sorry. Stop being delusional about all this.
So that would mean an octopus of cart modules coming out of the VCS? Ugh, no thanks.
The other problem with doing 5200 / Jaguar and Atari 8-bit games on a console like the VCS is those older systems have either keypads or keyboard buttons that are required to interact with many games, They don't map intuitively to an Xbox-style controller like the VCS has. (Look up the controller mapping of BigPEmu to see what I mean) Sure you can plug a keyboard in, but when it's in your living room, that's annoying. Instead of all these cart dumpers, first I'd like to see a modern controller with built-in keypad that covers all the buttons needed by Jag/5200 and the Start/Option/Pause buttons can be mapped to Atari 8-bit buttons, and a universal "exit emulator" button. So everything functions nicely with a single controller with an intuitive button layout.
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13 hours ago, JPF997 said:
I think the minimalistic look gives it a timeless feel, in 10 years it will still look fresh and not outdated like many remake's that have come out of other games,
Trust me, it's going to look dated in 10 years time. That look and color palette will be associated with this era, and 10 years down the road people will be looking for something new. There's also bound to be a backlash against minimalism at some point since you can only take that so far.
Quoteit's funny that you mentioned Super Mario bros Wii because I consider that game to be a perfect example of this, it already looks more dated than the classics, Super Mario bros 3 and Super Mario world in contrast to the Wii game haven't aged one bit and still look great today.
To me the originals look dated, espeically the first SMB. The Wii version doesn't look too dated other than the fact it's not HD
4 hours ago, ledzep said:I never played the original Haunted House, it seems very simple and boring to me though I know my friends had it and liked it. I watched this Atari 50 version video on it and it seems like a vast improvement. Not saying it's a game I'd run out to get but if I bought the Atari 50 collection and it's in there, anyway, I'd play it. I suspect that if the 2600 could do anything better than LEGO block graphics that the game would look like a primitive version of this reimagined version (3D view).
I was not super impressed with the Haunted House update on Atari 50: I don't think translating the original graphics into 3D is the right way to go about advancing the franchise, instead they should have used the enhanced graphics of the 5200, Jaguar or whatever to enhance the graphics to make it creepier. Here's some examples of other 8-bit horror-themed games to give an idea of directions a Haunted House franchise could have taken:
Colecovision Dracula (unreleased, but I so wanted to play this based on the screenshots)
Maxwell Manor (Atari 8-bit)
Ghost Chaser (C64/Atari 8-bit)
I am interested in the new Haunted House game Atari is releasing in two weeks. Atari hasn't had great luck in rebooting it so far, but this new version has at least one great preview so far:
https://www.relyonhorror.com/in-depth/hands-on-preview-from-pax-west-ataris-haunted-house-2023/
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1 hour ago, DarkLord said:
Wait... The ST line outsold the 8bit line? Huh... Didn't figure on that.
Thanks to Europe, probably. Based on the availability of software on ST vs 8-bit, the ST did seem more popular, but a lot of the software came from Europe.
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24 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:
That's not to say that sales were dismal, but they certainly weren't going to threaten anyone already at the top. This was the standard pattern for Atari at the time: able to somehow hang on in the market while others (Dragon, Oric, SAM, etc.) failed, but still never really reaching mainstream success.
Some of the Tramiels moves seemed more aimed at getting rid of warehouse stock rather than dominating a market. Modest UK sales of XEGS would be in line with this.
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1 hour ago, pboland said:
For the most part I agree. However, I was under the impression that Atari came up with the XEGS to sell excess inventory of 8-bit computer stuff in toy/department stores. As the story goes these stores wouldn't stock "computers" so the XEGS was invented to make it a console version of an 8-bit computer to get around the "no computers" thing. So Atari didn't really set out to make a better ADAM type concept computer. They were just looking for a way to get their 8-bit stuff sold. 😄
That's one story, I also heard they built it for they UK market because UK had more of a computer culture than console culture.
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56 minutes ago, cvga said:
Millions of kids have said "my family bought me an Atari for Christmas" but when Wade says it, it has a whole different meaning!
"Nooo! I meant I wanted a 2600 for Christmas! Well now that I own Atari I guess I'll just have to build my own"
- The inside scoop of how the 2600+ came to be
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I don't think any music says "80s" and "Atari" more than New Wave played on a Floppotron.
Move over Synthwave, make way for Seekwave?
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1 minute ago, somacast said:
here is another meaningless (((game))) ,a bouncing ball, the game is called Boeing, lol , it doesn't even auto play i had to start the file manually from disktop
Boing, I know the game well
One thing that's important to know- There are three main methods of auto-booting games
boot loader - game is loaded from master boot record and just loads
Auto Folder - You can put apps in here, and they will auto load as long as they don't require GEM calls
Auto Loading GEM Apps- this is only supported by TOS 1.4 and up, you edit the properties of the app, and set it to auto-load, then save your desktop to create a new desktop.inf, next time you boot, that game should auto load.
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34 minutes ago, guppy said:
But, as much as possible, I'd like to see Atari SA grant license to develop for Atari legacy hardware using Atari-owned IP freely, and commercial releases (eg physical carts) under friendly terms that don't restrict what hobbyist developers can do with Atari IP on legacy platforms, as long as they stay "in their lane" (so ports and releases on modern platforms are subject to different licensing terms, in other words).
It doesn't seem like the homebrew community infringes on Atari IPs that often, except maybe Asteroids. So if Atari opened their licenses, it doesn't guarantee games will get made based off them.
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22 minutes ago, guppy said:
*Before*; yes, precisely. Things changed with the Last Chance sale. So if hobbyist/fangame development continues, it may not be here, and it will not be given the physical cart publication treatment here.
Hobbyists have done this since the beginning, don't see why they'd stop now. I have tons of high-quality arcade rip-offs on ST and DOS, some were made available for free, others used the shareware model. People will find a way.
1 hour ago, guppy said:One company might develop a title, another gets involved in the manufacture of the arcade cabinet, another deals with distribution, another licenses the title to be developed and published on a home console. The port is developed by yet another party under contract, etc.
And sometimes the game is based on another property. Atari developed a bunch of Star Wars and Indiana Jones games, not to mention ET, but the license to rerelease such games is probably out of reach now
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18 minutes ago, 82-T/A said:
The thing that I always liked about the Tandy, was it's 3-voice polyphony. Even though it was still a PC speaker, the fact that they used 3-voices made all the difference in the world from normal beeps and boops. The awesome thing is... almost all games that support Tandy Sound, also support different graphics modes (because by the Tandy 1000 era, people were putting VGA cards into their machines). What's cool about that is that there are a bunch of aftermarket Tandy sound cards. The most popular one is a parallel port device. But there are also some ISA cards. I bought one that was designed by someone in Russia, but it's not available anymore. There are a few specs / schematics for them... but this is really cool. All of that said, I think DOSBOX supports Tandy now anyway natively... but if you like to play on old-school hardware... then these cards solve that probblem.
Oh yeah that's right, it did have enhanced graphics modes since I think the Tandy design was based on the PCjr? But as I recall many games we tried didn't support Tandy mode so we had to drop down to CGA with it's awful color palette. I don't recall much about the sound. My friend used to call me to help him get things working, since I was the "computer expert", but I always found its capabilities wanting.. To this day, I'm not much of a fan of PCs prior to the 386- at least not for gaming purposes.
33 minutes ago, 82-T/A said:I totally get it. It'll be a long time I think before I ever get around to playing them. I was obsessed with U6-U7p2, with the add-ons. They lost me a bit on Ultimate 8, and while I have 9... I haven't honestly played it. I really liked the original Ultima Underworld and Underworld 2, fantastic games. There's a NEW one I think, which I bought... but it's just not drawing me in. It's too different, and really doesn't feel like the originals. The graphics are great, but I'm just not really understanding the point of the game. Like, there is a really, really torturous mandatory training that they make as part of the game, and I honestly could never get past it. Underworld Ascent. Here's the trailer...
I'm not sure I'd even bother with Ultima III. Ultima IV is considered one of the best RPGs of all time, but even when I play that these days, it's constant combat due to random encounters and it gets tiring fast.
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I suppose everyone's answer is going to be the 2600 they owned in their youth, even if it's an odd bird like the Coleco Gemini.
My 2600 is a 4-switch woody. Since this is the same model the Lego 2600 and the new 2600+ are based off of, I guess that makes it the one true 2600 console!
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11 minutes ago, splendidnut said:
Yes, that's my understanding of the situation. While I'm not privvy to what hardware they are using to dump the cartridge, I believe that as long as that hardware is programmable, it should be possible to dump all of Pitfall 2 with this device. I'm guessing it is a low priority item since it would only be used to support a single game.
But it's a fairly important game in the Atari catalog.
20 minutes ago, Dionoid said:…so you’re saying that dumping Pitfall II is possible, but that it needs specific dumper-code which is only used for this game?
If Atari/Plaion would allow the AtariAge community to extend the dumper code and do custom firmware updates, that could maybe be the solution to get Pitfall II supported on the Atari 2600+ ?Yeah I could see a few workarounds to getting the game working including these you mention, however unless you hear from Atari or Plaion that the game is working, it's best to assume it's not compatible and might never be.
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33 minutes ago, guppy said:
There's a lot that Atari don't own, and never will, or at least not in any foreseeable future that is likely to happen. In the 80s, they were able to use their power as the market leader to obtain licenses to port many non-Atari arcade games: Space Invaders, Defender, Pac-Man, the list goes on. The ins and outs of all those deals must be a labyrinth.
Today, Bandai-Namco owns the rights to Pac-Man, as well as many other classic titles and trademarks. Bally-Williams owns a lot of classic arcade era IPs: Defender, Robotron 2084, etc. Activision is another one. Etc.Pac-man was alway owned by Namco with Bally/Midway producing arcade cabinets. It's a game that gets erroneously associated with Atari, but Atari only ever had the home publishing rights. People also falsly associate Space Invaders and Defender with Atari.
There's some trickier ones like Pole Position and Dig Dug that we all thought were Atari games BITD because the Atari logo was splashed all over the arcade cabinet, and Pole Position even had in-game Fuji Logo billboards, but they were Namco IPs too.
At any rate, I don't think anyone expects Atari to acquire the above games, (but they could always surprise us like they did with Berzerk/Frenzy). A lot of us would like to see the Atari Games catalog reunited with the pre-1984 Arcade catalog Atari currently owns, and Battlezone brought back into the fold.
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1 hour ago, x=usr(1536) said:
This way, the next time someone spouts off about having an opinion regarding an Atari product without actually owning it, I can start my reply to them with, "Speaking as a shareholder in Atari, SA..." The view from the high horse will be amazing.
And it would make us part owners in this forum and we get to tell Al how to run it!
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42 minutes ago, desiv said:
Not sure if Stella can do that, but I'm pretty sure some emulators probably can (I don't use Atari VCS emulation, so I haven't tried to run Pitfall II with it...)
Pitfall II rom works with both Stella and z26
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55 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:
The 2600+ wouldn't be able to use the extra chips in the Pitfall II cartridge, since it works by simply dumping the files into a software emulator. There's no reason the emulator couldn't run Pitfall II directly, though -- so long as there's a way to get the ROM file into the emulator via USB or similar.
I wonder if it's possible for the 2600+ to store the inaccessible parts of Pitfall II in case someone plugs in that cart, or would that still be a legal issue? The game wouldn't be playable without the cart.
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52 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:
Current iteration of Atari has been making interesting acquisitions like Berzerk/Frenzy, M Network Games (the Mattel games remade for Atari systems), and a whole bunch of old Accolade games including Bubsy. They tickle my gamer bone (picture it) but I don't see a strategy there. They also acquired NightDive, which DOES seem strategic, or at least self-serving.
So far the strategy isn't clear, but at least they are diversifying their gaming portfolio
Looking at the old IP list they used to post, it's full of games like "Hangman", "Sky Dive", "Bowling" and so on that you can't really build a franchise out of nor would they fit the recharged concept. Something like Bubsy does have franchise potential should they choose to go that route.
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16 hours ago, Zonie said:
My comment was more about since the thing is already an emulator with a cart dumper, It potentially could be possible to put Arcade ROMs on a cart, and the dumper, if designed to do so, detect this and then load the ROM and Mame or associated configs to the emulator and run. I would think this type of cart would either be electrically compatible with a 7800 port only to ensure no damage to either, and just not play or display a message, or if not possible, have some sort of physical tab on it's shell that would fit a matching slot on the 2600+ cart slot that is not present on the 2600 and 7800's of the past, hence preventing insertion.
But why?
I get for the 2600/7800 some people get nostalgic for carts or have a collection of carts they'd like to play
But nobody has a collection of "arcade carts", so why go through the expense of creating them when you can simply buy one of the many compilations that include most of the Atari arcade titles?
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17 hours ago, JPF997 said:
Well having grown up during the PS2/Gameboy advance days the stigma against gamers had mostly disappeared by then but you could still notice it at small levels, can't imagine what the old guard went through during the 80s and 90s, must have been a tough experience.
The worst part for me was high school, which was during the video game crash years when games almost completely disappeared from the mainstream. I definitely felt a stigma where you didn't want to go around advertising you were a gamer.
Still, gamers found each other, maybe we'd sit together at a lunch table looking around shifty-eyed making sure nobody was eavesdropping
"psst hey dudes, I got the new Bop N Wrestle game last night"
"awesome man, hook me up! slip it discreetly into my backpack"
people probably thought we were dealing drugs
By my senior year, NES had taken off and games were cool again.
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17 hours ago, guppy said:
Atari is currently valuated at a little under $70 million USD, with something like 480 million shares outstanding, which is not that much, really, all things considered. If AtariAge forum members all decided to buy a modest amount of the stock, we could become a more influential bloc when it comes to whom Atari SA is beholden to. Instead of complaining that they have to act in the interest of the shareholders, we could become a sizable portion of the shareholders, and then they would have to act in our interests.
Not a good idea, the users here would drive Atari to produce exotic, niche, enthusiast hardware that would sell a few hundred units max and bankrupt the company
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Will the Unity debacle affect VCS releases?
in VCS Programming/Homebrew
Posted
If Godot had Sony/Nintendo console integration, it would expose proprietary APIs, is that what you mean?